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Topic: Tomme de Savoie (Read 3321 times)

Mix up your washes in a small 16 oz jar with a air tight lid. Use a brush for applying the wash and rinse it out in the wash after each application. The seal the wash and place it in the cave until the next use. Rinse the brush off and re-use. The wash will take on some of the cheese and cloud up. This is a good thing. Keep using it in the same manner. I brush mine on every other day. Makes for a great smear.

Mix up your washes in a small 16 oz jar with a air tight lid. Use a brush for applying the wash and rinse it out in the wash after each application. The seal the wash and place it in the cave until the next use. Rinse the brush off and re-use. The wash will take on some of the cheese and cloud up. This is a good thing. Keep using it in the same manner. I brush mine on every other day. Makes for a great smear.

That makes a great busy morge, which is very appropriate for a Tomme. For a quieter, more controlled morge I make up the 3-5% brine at the time I do my Saint Paulin, Esrom, Tilsit, Pont l'Eveque, etc., and add in my PLA, ARN, or SR3 & Geo13. With each wash I use a new cosmetic pad (thanks, anutcanfly) to wipe the dosed brine all around. After a few washing cycles, all I have to do then is to wet the cheese surface and gently caress the wheel all over. Before too long a schmier has settled in and we're in business.

When I went out to give the Tomme a nice wash I notice some gooey schmeir beginning to form. Smells a little funky and the color is interesting from the red wine wash, kind of a nice lavender. I'll take some pic's tomorrow and post them.

And as promised a picture. This is right after I washed it so it's still pretty wet. I'm starting to get some gooiness. It's staying pretty moist. It is still damp and a little sticky when it's time to wash again. Still on every day (actually twice per day) but I'll taper off in a couple of days. It's an interesting color, I'll give it that. I hope it turns out good. The plan is to wash for another week or so and then let it start getting a nice moldy rind with whatever will grow on it......planning on somewhere around three or four months before cutting.

I've started washing it every other day now and the schmeir is doing nicely....if a gooey sticky goopy rind can be considered nice. In between washings it's trying it's best to grow mold so I'll probably start tapering off the washings pretty rapidly now to let the molds start doing their thing now that the B. Linens seems to be having a gooey good time. Very interesting color from the zinfandel washings, kind of a violet grey color. I'll get a pic of it when my phone recharges. I'm thinking this is going to be an interesting cheese.

I'm thinking I'm going to start drying it off and let the other components of the PLA do their thing. It's still pretty sticky but I'm keeping it between 85 and 90% rh and the GC is becoming obvious as the stickiness subsides. It's not showing any signs of cracking just yet. The sides are still quite moist and sticky but there is one or two spots of white mold starting to show up.

I've got high hopes for this cheese (yeah, I know , I've said that before). I don't know........the edges are very orange vice pink from the wine. I think the cheese has a raging case of BL. Sticky, stinky and nothing else will grow until it dries. I haven't core sampled this one, the core sample I took from the mutschli was awesome so I hope this one will be good......I'll take a core sample at about 3 months and see if the innards are doing well.....i suspect they are. I've got a friend that has a friend that is opening a creamery, I won't name them but it's going to be cool. I love their above the pale ales.......I was always was a fan of high gravity ales....none of the cheery session beers for me. My friend says the cheeses I've given him have been hits.....go figure.

Oh well, the best way to totally screw up your favorite hobby is to make it a job.

Rind is starting to dry now and the white mold is making it's move slowly but surely. As the stickiness resides the mold takes over. the edges were the stickiest of all since they go washed every time so they are the slowest to get white mold. I'm dying to try this cheese but it needs probably another couple of months but I guess i"m willing to wait....I've got Caerphillies waiting in the wings to make the wait easier.

If the flavor is anything like the aroma it's going to be a winner. I've stopped washing it completely and now I'm just caressing it lovingly every day to help spread the goodness around. Just about all the stickiness is gone now. Not sure if the GC is going to do a total takeover or whether it's going to remain patchy (which is ok too since you can see the cool color of the rind.) The aroma is kind of peppery/spicy with a little barnyard funk in the background. I'm thinking of cutting this one between two and three months. Maybe longer depending on how the Caerphillies and what not keep my attention off this little wheel of cheese.